I haven’t read a book by Holly Black since The Spiderwick Chronicles when I was about eleven; so when I found out that she did young adult fantasy/supernatural books, I knew right there and then that I had to read them. Holly Black had a way of writing The Spiderwick Chronicles that left me in awe.

Faeries make a re-appearance in Holly Black’s: The Darkest Part of the Forest.

In the darkest part of the forest, you must be careful what you wish for…

Let me start off by saying that this book was absolutely fantastic! It’s the first fantasy book that I’ve read in a long time because my time has seemed to be taken up my YA Contemporary, but this book just reminded me how much I love the fantasy genre and how magical it is – especially when it is written as beautifully as this.

At first, I didn’t care much for Hazel, she seemed like a very two-dimensional character. But as the story goes on and the plot develops, so do the characters. The character development is phenomenal. I went from not liking Hazel to absolutely worshipping her towards the end. And Ben! We see his struggles as a gay character throughout the book but you know what I love about this book? Everyone is accepting of the fact that he’s gay – there’s no name-calling, no teasing, just no bullying or hate in general and it’s a breath of fresh air to see a book that includes a gay character that is fully accepted within the society.

Also… I think I might have fallen in love with the horned boy… And Jack… Oops…

Both the main and the secondary characters in this book have all been given a lot of attention as well. The secondary characters are given as much depth as the main characters and we are told parts of every characters background in detail that makes the reader feel like they know this character, they know what they’ve been through, how they are feeling right now and what’s caused them to act how they do in the present day.

There are so many twists and turns throughout this book and a realisation that will leave your mouth hanging open in disbelief. There’s magic, there’s fighting, there’s faeries, there’s romance. There’s everything that you could possibly want from a book about the magical realms within a forest.

I can’t say any more about this book without revealing spoilers but all you have to know is that it’s beautifully written, it’s an amazing storyline, there’s plot twists galore and the main characters (and secondary characters) are amazingly written.

There we go. I think it’s 10000% obvious that I fully recommend this book to anyone. Go on, get it now and read it. And then tell me what you think!

Goodreads | Bloglovin | Twitter | Facebook